Collaboration between Ohio psychiatrists and the legislature to update commitment laws.

The author describes how the Ohio Psychiatric Association (OPA) worked with the state legislature to ensure that the revision of Ohio's laws regarding involuntary commitment of the mentally ill reflected what psychiatrists felt to be in the best interests of patients. The OPA was successful in changing the definition of "persons subject to hospitalization by court order," in abolishing suggested 90-day and 180-day limits on the hospitalization of certain kinds of patients, in supporting the participation of psychologists in the admission process after the presence of a medical examiner had been affirmed, and in protecting the confidentiality of private patients' records.